HRFM Today

Industry focus: Medical Products: Tessy Plastics to Grow

Upstate New York company which originally relied on Xerox printer cartridges has shifted its focus to automation and medical products. Current expansion plans at its Skaneateles plant near Syracuse call for a new 50,000 square-foot "clean room" manufacturing facility for use in producing products for minimally invasive surgery.  The new "clean room" will allow expansion of this product line while allowing the space of the old "clean room" to be used for other purposes. Its customers include medical device maker Welch Allen, along with other more common products, such as the container for old spice deodorant and the clip on some Hefty food storage bags.  The company has at least one patent (US patent no. 8,485, 231) which was granted in July 2013 relative to a method and apparatus for dispensing liquid medicine.  The invention described in the patent relates to a medical container having a flap which inhibits contamination from entering the container and which may be displaced by a plunger or syringe when it is desired to draw liquid (e.g., medicine) from the container.  The flap is intended to prevent bacteria or other undesirable contaminants from entering the container and spoiling the contents thereof.  As indicated in the article, the company hopes to do more research and development, which should lead to more patents, particularly if it is successful in receiving a tax break which it has requested connection with the building of the "clean room".

 

By Victor Cardona

IP101: I know that I should get moving on protecting my invention. What am I losing out on by waiting?

If you have invented a new product, process or composition of matter, waiting could allow someone else to jump you in line at the patent office and with the new first to file rules at the patent office such a line jumper could get a patent ahead of you . . . and prevent you from receiving a patent for your invention even if you could prove you invented before the line jumper.  Even if no one jumps ahead at the patent office, waiting to pursue protection until after you have sold, offered to sell or otherwise publicly disclosed your invention could foreclose your patent rights in all countries outside the US except for Canada and Australia, which - like the U.S. - have a one year grace period in which to file a patent application after a public disclosure.  Once such a disclosure is made, a one year clock starts ticking in the US and the other grace period countries after which you would be out of luck relative to obtaining patent protection.

Industry Spotlight: Cleantech: Hairy Particles: Paper Battery Gains a Partner, Looks for Customers, and Receives a *Hairy Patent*

Paper Battery Co. signs up a partner and looks to sell its paper thin patches to smartphone manufacturers.  This 5 year old start up in Troy, NY hopes to bring in $3 million in revenue by the end of this year. and $10 million in revenue by the end of 2015.  Commercial production is planned for 2014 in areas such as cloud computing and mobile computing applications, along with wearable electronics and  mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. 

 

Paper Battery has one patent  issued last August.  The main patent claim (i.e., the enforceable part of a patent) relates to nanoscale tethering between layers of an energy storage electrode. The electrode includes several hairy particles which promotes transport of electrolyte between neighboring particles of the electrode and have high surface area microstructures.  Paper Battery head, Shreefal Mehta believes that its ultracapacitor technology could help redefine how smart phones, wireless speakers and Bluetooth devices perform.  It must have something to do with those hairy particles...

 

By Victor Cardona